I finally received the edited copies of selected pictures from my photographer, Boon Cheng, who took our pictures in Kyoto.
Boon Cheng is a Malaysian photographer who spends most of his time in Japan. I found him on Airbnb.com when I was looking for a Kyoto photographer.
Out of the final three that we had shortlisted, we decided on him for his natural, bright and cheery pictures.
I made a request for my mother's dark brown spot on her cheek to be removed in the editing works and he kindly obliged.
He tried to get them to throw the small maple leaves but one of the models didn't look too spontaneous
When we met up at a Mcdonald's in Gion, Boon Cheng asked me about the kind of scenery we wanted, either nature or cityscapes and Japanese houses in Gion. I told him we wanted red leaves in our pictures, so he took us to a temple about 10 minutes' cab-ride away, where we had maple leaves and gingko trees as backdrop.
Being a Chinese Asian, I find him very friendly and easy to talk to. As what he stated in his Airbnb post, there is no need to worry about posing.
I had a hard time trying to decide on the photographer and only confirmed with him about 3 days prior to flying to Osaka.
Boon Cheng's photography service is tied up with a kimono shop which offers makeup services but we didn't explore that as I was worried that I might feel obliged to take it up even if I don't like their kimonos.
The shoot was a short 1.5h duration. It passed very quickly as Boon Cheng kept us occupied with the photo-taking at different spots even though it was only at one venue. It turned out that the temple spread over a wide area was a tourist attraction during fall.
After the shoot, I received the link via google drive from which we selected 40 pictures for editing (10 edited pictures per person). I missed out on the window period to write a review for Boon Cheng on Airbnb. Otherwise, he would have given us an additional 10 edited pictures. I am writing this review out of my own accord though, as a memory keepsake for myself and a form of resource and point of reference for anyone who is trying to find a photographer in Kyoto.
It was a great experience having some professional pictures taken in kimono. I wished I had known about such photography services when I first went to Japan a few years ago! I would urge anyone who's going Japan to try the same thing: rent a kimono and get some professional-looking photos done for keepsake. It's very different from doing selfies and having pictures taken on a mobile phone. After all, how many times do we get to don a kimono when we are not Japanese?
